J. S. Harry Selected Poems

Book excerpt: WhenJ.S. Harry died in 2015 she was acknowledged as one of the great female poetsof her generation, alongside Fay Zwicky, Antigone Kefala, Jennifer Maiden and JudithRodriguez. Thiscommemorative volume gathers poems from all her collections, as well as newpoems written in the last years of her life. As the use ofinitials in her writing name suggests, Jann Harry was a very private person. Shewas also gentle, kind, solicitous and endlessly curious - she would probe,enquire, pursue - everything seemed interesting to her. And she had anotherquality which was extraordinary, and which, along with her shyness andcuriosity, is such a powerful presence in her poetry: this was herattentiveness to the life of the natural world and its creatures. Her poems typicallytake a quizzical stance, which holds a strange or complex moment up to scrutiny,and then pursues its implications. Her attention is caught by the smallesteffects of nature, the delicate responses of animals - and also the gestures andwords of humans, finely observed, with a sense of the mystery or menace theycontain. The effect may be comic or surreal - or fierce, in its condemnation ofoppression. Her mastery of the poetic line - the pause, the sudden shiftin emphasis or perspective - and above all her interest in language, enhancethese effects. PeterPorter rightly declared Harry to be 'the most arresting poet working inAustralia today'. The poems included in SelectedPoems were chosen by J.S. Harry herself, and her long-time friend, the poetNicolette Stasko.